Super short post today. As you know, I play nothing but a full Kinnaird setup in my Gellaitry pipes and they sounding uhmayzin (that’s some west texas drawl fer ya). I done figured I’d put them in my MacPherson pipes and see how they went. The answer: fantastic. So, why don’t you play Kinnaird drone reeds? I just ordered me some from Gord at islandbagpipe.com so I could play a set in both pipes without swapping out. The one recording below is of a tune I wrote followed by one I didn’t played on the MacPherson pipes with Kinnaird drone reeds, accompanied by a Colin Kyo laminate chanter with a Shawn Husk chanter reed that has had its middle carved away as it was a bit too hard. Sorry about the E being a little out and that squawk in the middle.
Category Archives: Great Highland Bagpipe Solo
The Kron Medalist
Well, my solo reed is about done. Any squirreliness you’ve noticed in the last couple posts where I mention its use can be solely attributed to its lackluster performance. I’ll have to try that mandrel trick again and see if that helps. But, I used it one last time for this post on the Kron Medalist chanter. In my past attempts at recording this chanter (well, it was a different one that I ended up recording with a McLaren synthetic reed) I could never get past flat C and F. This is probably because the reeds I was trying weren’t completely broken in, but they did go fine in other chanters. So I figured, can’t get any more broken in than this reed so plop it in there and away we go. The first track was meant to exhibit the very awesome high A, except it went sharp about 20 seconds in so you’ll have to catch a glimpse from the latter two recordings, Song for Winter being a good one, F too, and B, good chanter. Me likes. As it stands, the first recording is just an example of how inconsistent my grips are, one day I’ll get that tune down. Pipes are the Gellaitry’s again.
PM George Allan (Donald MacLeod) and Braes of Melinish
Song for Winter and Maggie’s Pancakes (Stuart Morrison – fiddler with Tannahill Weavers)